Minorities in the Military Open Up About the NFL, Kaepernick and Nike

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On the eve of the N.F.L. season, Nike debuted a new campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback at the center of the ongoing league protests against police violence. The announcement reignited the debate over kneeling during the national anthem, with calls to boycott Nike on the grounds that the company was tacitly supporting the protests, which have been described as unpatriotic and disrespectful to service members by critics, including President Trump.

We wanted to know how service members and veterans felt about this, so Race/Related collaborated with At War, The New York Times Magazine’s channel that explores the experience and costs of war. Together, we reached out to readers for their perspectives on the debate, asking how their service and race have influenced their opinions. We received more than 400 responses. Here are some of their perspectives.

report released last week by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund examines Judge Kavanaugh’s opinions and rulings on matters of racial and economic inequality. The analysis is based on a review “encompassing over 300 written opinions, focusing on constitutional and statutory issues.”

It is also “necessarily incomplete,” the report says, because of unreleased documents relating to Judge Kavanaugh’s time as a staff secretary and lawyer for former President George W. Bush. (Some of those documents have since been leaked.)

live with writers Alan Feuer and Sabrina Tavernise, who discussed their reporting and personal experiences. Be sure to join our live conversations every Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern as we examine topics related to race and culture on The Times’s Facebook page.

Join us on Sept. 20 in Portland, Ore., for an event with the activist DeRay Mckesson in conversation with LaurettaCharlton, editor of the Race/Related newsletter. Lauretta and DeRay will discuss his new book, “On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope,” as well as inclusion, communities, empowerment and more. Use promo code NYTIMES for $5 off the ticket price. [Tickets]

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